Busch wins MLS goalkeeper award, Fair Play award to Parkhurst

Chicago Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch has been named MLS goalkeeper of the year, beating out Columbus Crew goalkeeper Will Hesmer and New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis, Major League Soccer announced on Tuesday.

MLS announced the winners of its first two league awards on Tuesday morning, with New England Revolution defender Michael Parkhurst repeated as MLS Fair Play Award winner, beating out Chicago’s Chris Rolfe and New York Red Bull Juan Pablo Angel.

Even though the hardware has already been handed out, it doesn’t mean you can’t vote on who you think deserved the goalkeeper of the year award. Give us your vote:

I don’t have any complaints but would have given it to Ancient Pat Onstad, personally.

Parkhurst is one of the more overrated players I’ve ever seen in this league, and it is starting to annoy me. The fair play award is becoming like a gold glove in baseball, with guys winning it based on hearsay and reputation more than anything related to their play on the field.

I think that Busch really deserved this award! His stats were all great and he made quite a few important saves when the defense left him on his own so it wasn’t just who was in front of him. This is even more obvious when you look at the number of shots he had to deal with and the fact that he had the best saves percentage. Well done, Jon.

Parkhurst might be a bit overrated in the defense aspect (He’s one of my favorite players, but this season hasn’t been too hot) but in the fact that a central defender has played a majority of his teams games this year and not received a single yellow card in MLS play, I think its totally deserved.

How is Parkhurst overrated? Because he hasn’t gotten NT call-ups? Because he hasn’t gone overseas? I think it’s incredibly telling when a defender is nominated for fair play award (which goes on stats, not reputation). Perhaps Ives could shed some light onto the specific qualifications before a player is considered in the running for fair play award.

Kevin Hartman was better than half those guys. He had the most shutouts, and saves. He was the reason the Wizards didn’t dig themselves into a huge hole early on, and he is getting absolutely no respect.

I didn’t watch many Revs games the 2nd half of the year, and I hear Reis dropped off, but I still saw more completely dominating games out of him than any other keeper this year. I’m fine with a more consistent player winning, but man he submitted some great ones this year.

I think Busch deserved to win. He has bailed his team out on numerous occasions, and provides strong (and vocal) leadership from the back.

I like Parkhurst, but just don’t think he’s as great as all the hype would lead you to believe. It’s actually nice to see a defender succeed on intelligence and positioning rather than on raw athletic ability.

Generally, though, the Fair Play award seems a bit lame to me. i get the point, but…meh.

It’s pathetic when a pimply frizzy-haired hack like Parkhurst can get the Fair Play award! I mean, come on! What about the RBNY game?!? And what does he have to show for his season besides more on-field minutes and fewer cautions? Rolfe had 9 goals and 7 assists! So Parkhurst gets “the benefit of the doubt” because he’s a defender? This is the typical kind of biased back-handed farcical judgment that I’ve (unfortunately) come to expect from MLS, doing anything they can to put a Revs player in the awards even when they’ve had a mediocre year.

Parkhurst isn’t going to get, and doesn’t deserve this year, the top Defender award. He’s given us some great games, and stretches of excellent play, but he’s also had a couple games where errors led directly to goals. Atypical based on what we’d expect, and hopefully aberrant. But his ability to snuff out attacks without hacking opposing players is still pretty damn impressive, especially when they were playing that three-man back line. (You could argue that he didn’t need to do the dirty work, given that Larentowicz and Joseph were in front of him picking up the cards, but I think that’s not a big part of the story of how Parkhurst plays.)

Yep, I’m a Revs fan, but I like to think I’m not a total homer. Take my thoughts as you see fit.

Jon Busch had a very good year. Pat Onstad got my vote for this year, last year and for his MLS career. I think M. Parkhurst getting the fair play award is fine–he is a good, non-intimidating MLS central defender who doesn’t foul a lot, which is a good thing most of the time.